Bradblog: Breaking: New GAO report confirms e-voting security concerns

[Amaryllis]

BREAKING: NON-PARTISAN GAO REPORT CONFIRMS CONCERNS ABOUT SECURITY OF ELECTRONIC VOTING MACHINES!
REPORT: 'Loss and Miscount of Votes in Recent Elections'!
House issues BI-PARTISAN Press Release: Report 'A Wake Up Call', 'Foundation of Democracy Rests Upon Security, Integrity of our Voting System"

"oncerns about electronic voting machines have been realized and have caused problems with recent elections, resulting in the loss and miscount of votes."

That's just one of the chilling revelations from the non-partisan Government Accountability Office's (GAO) 107-page report on the security of Election Voting Machines in America as just released moments ago. The report confirms many of the greatest concerns expressed by those who have called for Election Reform since the deeply flawed 2004 Presidential Election.

The report "analyzed over 80 recent and relevant reports related to the security and
reliability of electronic voting systems." The results confirm a range of security vulnerabilities and violations in Electronic Voting Machines in recent elections and the accompanying systems used to administer elections in the United States of America. It goes on to say that the issues brought to the attention of the GAO by elected representatives, activists and other concerned citizens, "merit the focused attention of federal state and local authorities responsible for election administration."

The GAO report (download complete report here ) was created in response to a request by several members of the U.S. House Judiciary Committee.

A joint bi-partisan press release touting the findings of the report has just been issued by three Republican and three Democratic Congressmen including Government Reform Committee Chairman Tom Davis (R-VA) and Ranking Member Henry A. Waxman (D-CA), Judiciary Committee Chair F. James Sensenbrenner (R-WI) and Ranking Member John Conyers (D-MI), and Science Committee Chair Sherwood Boehlert (R-NY) and Ranking Member Bart Gordon (D-TN).

While The BRAD BLOG is still perusing the details of the extensive report, some of the key findings are listed right on the front page:

For the rest: http://bradblog.com/

[texpatriot2004]

1. Cool, a link to download the report. n.t

[Wilms]

22. Pardon me. Just wanted to add the permalink for the story.

http://www.bradblog.com/archives/00001940.htm

[electropop]

2. Oh My God! Can this be for real? I must be dreaming!

This is an excellent moment to be talking about corruption in our election machinery, while the public is acutely aware of the corruption endemic in the Republican Party.

[electropop]

3. Ome on, folks, this story is HUGH!!!11!! Recommend PLEASE

:bounce: :toast: :party:

[blm]

5. A few more eyeballs should do it. RECOMMEND _ RECOMMEND _ RECOMMEND

,

[blm]

4. Email report to all national and LOCAL media lists.

Make them KNOW that we're interested and want attention for this report.

[nadinbrzezinski]

6. Is it me or the whole bloody mess is starting to ahem

come out?

[blm]

10. Katrina opened alot of eyes to the naked emperor. Now they're more willing

to hear more facts about BushInc. And some of the media have lost their fear of Rove and retaliation from their corporate masters.

Wouldn't sound good for the corporates (for example) that they fired Anderson Cooper for showing what was REALLY happening in New Orleans. Would it?

[ginnyinWI]

15. it's like a house of cards, isn't it?

All comin' down at once.

But note: it's a "Friday Dump" being released today.

I'm shocked at Sensenbrenner. Maybe he's feeling a little less secure about re-election next fall. Elect Bryan Kennedy for 5th District, 2006!!!

[Peace Patriot]

7. Thanks, Amaryllis! This is critically important! And Stephen Freeman's

book coming out soon, as well. Did someone say "Perfect Storm"?

[bostonbabs]

8. perfect timing n/t......

[mirandapriestly]

9. I remember after the election, GAO was asked to investigate and they said

they weren't set up to look into elections or something like that. Something must have changed their mind, whatever it is I'm glad. Are government officials waking up?
I will remember the Republicans who had the guts to question this administration, like those on the Judiciary Committee who are behind this. Not all republicans are corrupt.

[Chicago1]

11. This is more joy and happiness than a person deserves

I had to rub my eyes. I can't believe this is true. Thank you GAO's office and THANK YOU PATRICK FITZGERALD. YOU ALL ARE HEROS!!!!


LET THE REVOLUTION BEGIN!!! :)

[Land Shark]

12. It's great to get this confirmation of problems, but GAO likes computers

in elections. I'm wary of "solutions" that superficially make things look better while fully preserving secret vote counting. Like open source, for example. Code that IS used should be open source, but the strength of open sources does not justify secret vote counting unobservable and unsupervised by citizens.

[kster]

23. Yes, its good news,and it becomes great news

if we get some prime time news coverage, on the election theft machines, so all of America can see it.

[Nothing Without Hope]

13. ***PERMALINK of the BradBlog post in the OP***

http://www.BradBlog.com/archives/00001940.htm

The link given in the OP is to the home page of BradBlog and will not lead to this article in a few days. To get the permalink, go to the bottom of the post at BradBlog and get the URL of the livelink that says "link" in this line:
{Email it to someone!} {link} {60 comments so far...}

[Nothing Without Hope]

14. One more ingredient to mix in - a study showed that touchscreen voting

actually costs 40 PER CENT MORE than the safe, auditable traditional kind:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=203x396623

We are paying a premium to Bush cronies to steal our own democracy with hackable, insecure, trackless machines!

[kster]

16. Mr Conyers knows

"He says the report "lends important credibility to the cause of election reform generally, and more specifically to requiring that every machine have a voter verified paper ballot that is used in election days audits and, if discrepancies are found in those audits, ((becomes the official record for the election.))

"I would add that the central tabulators be secured with law enforcement that will make sure anyone who wants to observe the tabulation process is able to observe the tabulation process, and if they are denied, the tabulator gets shut down and the VVPB are counted by hand, and the VVPB become the official record for the election." STRICTLY ENFORCED

[In Truth We Trust]

17. Paper ballots NOW!!! Hand counts NOW!!! Impeachment NOW!!!

[kster]

19. "Paper ballots NOW!!! Hand counts NOW!!! YES!!!

[are_we_united_yet]

18. *Gasp*

They cheated?

[electropop]

20. I can't find it on the GAO site. Has it been pulled? Is it a hoax???

Hoo boy. :wtf: :shrug:

[Wilms]

21. Here's Brad's link to the pdf.

http://www.bradblog.com/Docs/GAOReport_ElectionSecurity_102105.pdf

[electropop]

24. Oh, I downloaded it. Just looking for a link to give to non-lefty friends

GAO's site has a certain cachet.

[Wilms]

25. I agree. Non-Lefty links here.

Here's the GAO "Abstact" page:
http://www.gao.gov/docsearch/abstract.php?rptno=GAO-05-956


Here's the pdf:
http://www.gao.gov/new.items/d05956.pdf

[electropop]

26. Thank you very much!

This is exactly what i needed. :-)